class="c9">11.

How Vegetation Holds the Soil 67 12. What Happens Where There Is No Protecting Carpet of Vegetation 73 13. The Use and Care of Water 81 14. Could We Get Along without the Trees? 89 15. Where Has Nature Spread the Forest? 96 16. What Are the Enemies of the Trees? 104 17. How the Forests Are Wasted 112 18. How the Forests Suffer from Fires 119 19. Evils that Follow the Destruction of the Forests 125 20. How Our Government Is Helping to Save the Forests 130 21. Our Forest Playgrounds 139 22. What Is Happening to the Wild Flowers 144 23. Nature's Penalty for Interfering with Her Arrangements 150 24. What Shall We Do When the Coal, Oil, and Gas Are Gone? 155 25. Need for Protection of Creatures That Live in the Water 162 26. Man More Destructive than the Other Animals 171 27. What Is Happening to the Animals and Birds 176 28. The Tragedies of Milady's Hat and Cape 183 29. The Court of the Animals and Birds 188 30. The Birds Our Good Friends and Pleasant Companions 195 31. How to Bring the Wild Creatures Back Again 203   Index 213

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CONSERVATION READER

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CHAPTER ONE

HOW OUR FIRST ANCESTORS LIVED

Before these fields were shorn and tilled Full to the brim our rivers flowed; The melody of waters filled The fresh and boundless woods; And torrents dashed, and rivulets play'd, The fountains spouted in the shade.

William Cullen Bryant,
quoted in American Forestry, XIV. 520

The earth is our home. It is a great treasure house filled with the most wonderful things. Although people have lived on the earth for many thousands of years, they have been very slow in learning the secrets of their treasure house. This is because early men were much like the lower animals. During all these years their minds have been slowly growing. Now we can learn and understand many things which our ancestors of long ago could not.

In habits and appearance the first men that roamed the earth were little different from the other animals except that they walked upright. When they had enough to eat and a home safe from enemies, they seemed perfectly happy and contented.

These early men lived in the same wonderful treasure house as we do, but they did not know how to make use of its riches. In truth, their wants were